Comments from JeffKurtti

The Crest was renovated by Seven Gables Theatres in Spring of 1978 and reopened with the premiere Seattle 70mm engagement of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” in May of that year. It bore the name Crest 70, along the lines of then-stalwart Seattle theatres UA 70 (70mm) and UA 150 (Dimension 150), touting its then-exclusive 70mm presentations.

Among its memorable showings were a 1979 70mm run of Walt Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty” for the first time in 20 years, the premiere engagement of Carroll Ballard’s “The Black Stallion,” and a repertory featuring 70mm screenings of “Days of Heaven,” “Camelot,” and “Hello, Dolly!” among many others.

The theatre storefronts were removed and gutted and converted into a small specialty cinema in 1979. The main auditorium was clumsily triplexed in 1980, destroying the presentation quality that had made the theatre such a success story only two years prior.